A European team of scientists have built the first atlas of white-matter microstructure in the human brain. The project’s final results have the potential to change the face of neuroscience and medicine over the coming decade.

The work relied on groundbreaking MRI technology and was funded by the EU’s future and emerging technologies program with a grant of 2.4 million Euros. The participants of the project, called CONNECT, were drawn from leading research centers in countries across Europe including Israel, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland and Italy.

The project... [more]

By collecting and analysing people’s ‘serendipity stories’, researchers at UCLIC and their partners hope to design an interactive system that makes us more prepared for recognising serendipity when it happens and, crucially, supports us in acting on it. In order to understand serendipity better, the team asked 39 academics and creative professionals to tell them their memorable examples of serendipity, either from their work or everyday lives.

The ?serendipity stories? told by their interviewees include a student being offered an internship at a journalism lab because someone from the lab... [more]

Dr Jens Groth has been awarded a highly competitive €1.3m ERC Starting Grant. The grant will support a research group dedicated to the development of efficient zero-knowledge proofs.

Zero-knowledge proofs make it possible to demonstrate that a given statement is true without revealing any other information besides the truth of the statement. They are used in security applications where participants give zero-knowledge proofs that they are acting honestly and correctly; this ensures cheaters cannot deviate from the protocol they are supposed to follow.

UCL has jumped 3 places to 4th in the QS World University Rankings. The QS rankings rate the world's top 400 universities, evaluating each institution's strengths in research, teaching, the employability of its graduates and international outlook.

QS RANKING: TOP 10

• 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (last year 3)
• 2. University of Cambridge (1)
• 3. Harvard University (2)
• 4. UCL (7)
• 5. University of Oxford (5)
• 6. Imperial College London (6)
• 7. Yale University (4)
• 8. University of Chicago (8)
• 9. Princeton University (13)
• 10. California Institute of Technology (12)

The UCL Entrepreneurs Society are organising a trip to Russia in partnership with the Synergy Business School in Moscow. This will be held on the 8th – 15th September 2012 in Moscow.

Application Deadline – 24th of August 2012.
To register please fill in the application form:
https://dbwr.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3k1/ 

The “Doing Business with Russia” tour will feature 6 days of company visits to top financial firms and technology leaders, as well as meetings with political figures within the Russian Parliament or Government. There will be business workshops, sightseeing and practical exercises.

The... [more]

UCL's MSc Software Systems Engineering (SSE) students were kindly hosted by Microsoft UK in Reading to give mid-project feedback on the students dissertation projects. The projects were presented by each group followed by a Q & A session with Microsoft. Microsoft UK have officially supported the MSc SSE projects this year with technical assistance from a number of their developer and research groups, including MSR Cambridge and the Visual Studio Team. UCL are proud to announce a number of these projects use the latest Microsoft technologies, including Windows 8 apps development.

The same... [more]

Animal Systems, a spin-off business from University College London (UCL) led by Anthony Steed, has developed a free app called "Chirp". Chirp uses sound from a smart-phone's speaker to trigger transfers of photos, web pages and contacts. The phones receiving the sound then transfer the data via the company's servers.

Existing systems share data via WiFi or Bluetooth but these require some time and effort to set up "pairing" arrangements between devices. Chirp avoids this and also enables data to be shared with multiple recipients. The sound used has been carefully chosen to enable the app to... [more]

Welcome to StuConOS

The StuConOS conference is aimed at current undergraduate and master students. The conference will give students a chance to submit their work and to have this reviewed by a programme committee of experts. We interpret the word "optimisation" in its very broad sense: anything that improves (in any way) software or the process of making it. It will give students an initial taste of research work and a chance to publish and discuss their ideas with experts. The programme committee will review the submissions and decide on those to be accepted and the prizes to be awarded. All... [more]